Housing Byron Shire’s future population – how and where

Affordable and diverse housing options have been hot topics in the Byron Shire for several years, but the 2022 foods highlighted the problem.

Moving forward after the foods, and to comply with housing targets set by the NSW Government, Council staff are refreshing the Shire’s Residential Strategy, a document that provides the vision and framework for how Council intends to provide future housing over the next 20 years.

The frst step in this process is the development of a Housing Options Paper that identifes the areas of the Shire that are suitable for residential development.

“The NSW Government recently reviewed its housing targets, and it is Council’s job to make sure that we have the planning frameworks in place that will allow for residential development to happen,” Mayor Lyon said.

“Housing is the number one issue for our community and lack of affordability and supply is having a massive impact on the social fabric of our shire as well as the economy,” he said.

“We have the highest rate of rough sleepers in NSW; we have a community still reeling from the foods; we have people who cannot fnd affordable long-term housing and we have businesses who can’t fnd staff because workers can’t afford to live here.

“This refresh of the Residential Strategy is a step forward in the long-term planning for population growth – put simply – where people are going to live,” Mayor Lyon said.

The Housing Options Paper sets out where in the Shire housing will be delivered, including present and future land release areas and infll development.

“Not only do we have a responsibility to ensure we are delivering housing for our community into the future, but we also need to make sure we do this in a way that respects the natural environment.

“We also have to consider and respect the identity and character of our towns and villages,” Mayor Lyon said.

The Housing Options

Paper will be presented to Council on 28 September and go will on exhibition for community comment in early October.

“How to fx the housing crisis is a question being echoed across all levels of government and as a Council we need to be leading this conversation to ensure we deliver the best solutions for our community,” Mayor Lyon said.

THEREare two places in the world where I’ve experienced pure self-invigorating solitude, one was near my hometown of Broken Hill at a place called Mundi Mundi Plains (which was ironically where the bulk of the Mad Max films were shot) and the other was at Walden Pond just outside of Boston.

In many other locations, and at different times in my life I’ve experienced solitude, loneliness too; but solitude is almost the opposite to being left all alone or feeling deserted – it is an abundant sensation that teems with a tranquil zest and a reassuring awareness that you are alive, and that anything is possible.

“Solitude,” once said Wayne Cordeiro, “is a chosen separation for refining your soul. Isolation is what you crave when you neglect the first.” Which could almost outright define the reasoning behind Henry David Thoreau’s decision to live at Walden Pond for two years by himself in the 1840s. What’s more, chapter five of ‘Walden’, the classic book Thoreau would go on to write about his time in the wilderness, was simply titled – Solitude. It is a misconception that solitude is only possible in isolation, or in a state that is conjured, albeit manifested far removed from the madding crowd. Relatedly, one of Thoreau’s dearest friends and mentors, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great person is the one who in the midst